Past Films

Ex Machina

Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama

Written & Directed By: Alex Garland

Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac

Rating: R

Running Time: 108 min.

Alex Garland, writer of 28 Days Later and Sunshine, makes his directorial debut with the stylish and cerebral thriller, EX MACHINA. Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a programmer at an internet-search giant, wins a competition to spend a week at the private mountain estate of the company’s brilliant and reclusive CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). Upon his arrival, Caleb learns that Nathan has chosen him to be the human component in a Turing Test-charging him with evaluating the capabilities, and ultimately the consciousness, of Nathan’s latest experiment in artificial intelligence. That experiment is Ava (Alicia Vikander), a breathtaking A.I. whose emotional intelligence proves more sophisticated—and more deceptive—than the two men could have imagined. (C) A24

"To dismiss Ex Machina as just another robot movie would be like calling the Grand Canyon a hole in the ground. It's one of the most original, smart, thought-provoking science fiction movies of recent years."

"It plays like Frankenstein meets Blade Runner via Hitchcock haunted by the ghosts of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, in a film that’s both highly literate and steeped in tense cat-and-mouse chills. Thematically epic – it demands to be seen at least twice and should fuel hours of debate — structurally it’s as lithe as Ava’s perfect mesh frame."

- Rosie Fletcher, Total Film

"The Swedish actress Alicia Vikander ("The Fifth Estate") infuses Ava with the just the right mixture of iciness, vulnerability and mystery. It's a star-making performance."

- Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

"Like stage actors who live and breathe their roles over the course of months, Isaac, Gleeson, and Vikander excel, and cast a spell."

- Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

""Ex Machina" is an exquisite puzzle box of a picture. It baffles. It unsettles. It intrigues."

- Soren Anderson, Seattle Times

"The picture is a triumph: it's arguably Garland’s tightest and most fascinating screenplay to date, brought to life with meticulous filmmaking and sensational performances. It's the first great film of 2015."

- Oliver Lyttelton, The Playlist

"Garland's original screenplay brims with intelligence, unafraid to let characters speak over our heads. Yet it remains a pulpy delight, due largely to its uniquely mad scientist."

- Steve Persall, Tampa Bay Times

"It's great when a movie messes with your head. And Ex Machina, screenwriter Alex Garland's directorial debut, does just that, pretty much from start to finish. The writer of "28 Days Later" and "Sunshine" purports to examine A.I., or artificial intelligence. What he's really after is something at once more exotic and more relatable — and infinitely less predictable: human nature."